Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Obama 1998 Loyola Speech

It turns out Mitt Romney isn’t the only presidential candidate to have a video leak this week.Fresh on the heels of Romney’s leaked campaign fundraising video,
in which the Republican candidate calls 47 percent of Americans
"dependent on government" since they don’t pay federal income taxes, a
recording from a purported 1998 Loyola University appearance by President Barack Obama has been posted to YouTube.The sentiments revealed in the more than decade-old Obama video,
however, are far different those Romney expressed at a Florida
fundraiser this May. Referring to efforts to restore the efficacy of
government, then-Illinois state Sen. Obama said: “The trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems
that pool resources and hence facilitate some [wealth] redistribution --
because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain
level to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.”A request for comment to confirm the authenticity of the leaked Loyola video was not immediately returned by the Obama campaign.During his 2008 presidential campaign, some 10 years later, it seemed
Obama's stance on redistribution had changed little. He garnered
Republican criticism when he told an Ohio campaign audience, “When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”Obama now may be more wary of such language. Earlier this year when
the president pushed for the Buffett Rule, a plan that would have raised
taxes on the wealthy, he maintained such a tax increase was not designed to redistribute wealth but to spur investment in the U.S. economy.